{"id":53043,"date":"2026-03-18T00:11:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=53043"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:11:01","slug":"cx2g2v8dm24oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/18\/cx2g2v8dm24oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Ollie Chessum: Bielle Biarrey&#8217;s pace spooked me on Six Nations finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">England back row Ollie Chessum says the fear of being chased down by Louis Bielle-Biarrey, France&#8217;s free-scoring, high-speed wing, spooked him as he went in for a 60m intercept try in <\/b><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">England&#8217;s 48-46 Six Nations defeat on Saturday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chessum, who scored two tries, set up a third and was England&#8217;s star performer in Paris, admitted he had &#8220;copped a lot of stick&#8221; for not scoring closer to the posts as he ran in unopposed in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fly-half Fin Smith missed the subsequent conversion from out near the left-hand 10m line and England ultimately came up just short in a 94-point epic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was adamant that there was a red scrum out lurking in the background that was going to bring me down,&#8221; said Chessum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So I just pinned my ears back and hoped that no-one managed to grab on to my coattails and bring me to the floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve copped a lot of stick, I think, for not heading toward the posts. My brother&#8217;s sent me a few things, but it was unfamiliar territory for me to be in a line-break situation like that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m sure Fin would have thanked me for it being a bit closer, but I can&#8217;t turn back the clock now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bielle-Biarrey, who scored four tries in France&#8217;s win, was in close attendance as Chessum picked off Matthieu Jalibert&#8217;s pass on his own 10m line, but neither he, Jalibert or full-back Thomas Ramos could tun and catch the Leicester man before the line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chessum&#8217;s score came as no surprise to Tigers&#8217; coach Geoff Parling, who revealed that the 25-year-old&#8217;s top sprint speed has been clocked at 9.3 metres per second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;As soon as he got the intercept I knew he was going to score because I know how fast he is,&#8221; said Parling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He moves very well for a big man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I thought he was exceptional against France \u2013 he kept trying to drive the team forward and that is what he does for us too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chessum said England&#8217;s final-round display was an improvement but could not mask a miserable Six Nations campaign that returned only one victory from five matches and led to a fifth-place finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It was a frustrating few weeks, there&#8217;s no hiding the disappointment and frustration,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;For the middle of those three weeks [defeats against Scotland, Ireland and Italy], we were nowhere near where we wanted to be and that shows in the table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t know about it being a standard-setter, but I think [the France performance] just felt more like us and the way we wanted to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It felt like the way we have played for the majority of last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I suppose, from our perspective, we&#8217;d want to try and bottle that feeling as much as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chessum landed back at London Heathrow from Paris on Sunday lunchtime and he and Leicester team-mate Jack van Poortvliet took a taxi straight to Mattioli Woods Welford Road to catch the end of Tigers&#8217; 66-14 victory over Leicester in the Prem Rugby Cup final.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Ollie #Chessum #Bielle #Biarreys #pace #spooked #Nations #finale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England back row Ollie Chessum says the fear of being chased down by Louis Bielle-Biarrey, France&#8217;s free-scoring, high-speed wing, spooked&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53045,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53043\/revisions\/53045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}